The Ironman-distance world record set by Andreas Raelert in 2011 riding the bike leg on the old Timemachine stood for five years. When it was surpassed in 2016, BMC says it took this as a pointer to launch its new bike.

New Timemachine has a skinny front profile

Like Cervélo with its new P5X also announced today, BMC says that the new bike has been in design for three years. It says that the result is a bike which makes it easier to maintain an aero time trial position and ride faster.

BMC says that the improved performance of the new bike is thanks to changes in tube shaping, increased component integration and a sophisticated rider positioning system. It’s aimed for a very skinny front profile on the new bike and has developed a triathlon-specific cockpit, analysing the position of triathletes and time trialists and building a lot of flexibility into positioning.

So the standard V-cockpit places the bars higher up, although BMC says that this may not be UCI-legal. You can also buy a flat cockpit for a lower, more aerodynamic position. The flat cockpit base bar can be mounted in two positions, to put the bar ends higher or lower.

Watch: How to beat long time trials

Likewise, there’s lots of adjustment in the seatpost, which has two mounting positions for an effective seat tube angle between 71.5 and 80.8 degrees. Mount it in the forward position and there’s room for a storage box behind.

The bike can be configured with a forward seatpost position and flat cockpit…

There will be two variants of the Timemachine sold: the 01 allows switching between the V and flat cockpits, a hinged fork and has quick-swappable brake pads to allow the use of aluminium training wheels and carbon race wheels. The 02 has a standard, non-switchable cockpit, standard headset and direct mount brakes. BMC says that the frame will take tyre widths up to 27/28mm.

The new bike will be available in six builds, ranging from Dura-Ace Di2 and SRAM eTap down to 105 as well as three frameset variants. It will be ridden at the World Time Trial Championships in UCI-legal format.

UK distributor Evans Cycles expects stock towards the end of November, with the TM01 priced at £6899 and the TM02 at £4999, both with Ultegra Di2.